If Only
by loveless80's
Summary: Reyna thinks about Percy and Annabeth's relationship, and ultimately why she wasn't meant to be with Jason. During the first few chapters of the Mark of Athena. One-shot.


**Author's Note: 'Sup everyone! This is my first story. Actually, this fanfic was inspired by something I read a while back ago, but I forgot the title of that fanfic story. Anyway, this year 2014 I'm so busy with all the schoolwork and all, but I wanted to try something new. So…I came up with this. I'm interested about Reyna after reading the House of Hades-oh gosh that book-and I'm a total Percabeth fan. So much that it's turning creepy. :O So, enough with my rambling and enjoy! **

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If Only

By: loveless80's

The blonde girl with stormy grey eyes charged straight into the newly-elected praetor. A pair of steely dark eyes, along with dozens of more prying ones, watched as the two kiss and then suddenly-and _almost_ funnily-the blondie tackled the guy and judo-flipped him.

The girl watching them, with dozens of other Romans, lets a small laugh escape her firmly tight lips. A few of the Romans' transfixed gazes at the odd Greek couple in front of them instantly averts to her. They are shocked and speechless; praetor Reyna Ramirez NEVER laughs. Ever. Well…maybe she did when Jason Grace was _still_ around in Camp Jupiter. A topic the single, tough female praetor never wants to talk about.

But no matter. Right now they were gazing at a miracle, and suddenly another miracle occurs. The two warring factions do not attack each other instantaneously. It is a miracle; there was never a time when Romans and Greeks met without threatening to decapitate each others' heads.

Reyna smiled as Percy slung his arm around Annabeth's shoulders. They are both dirty and grimy from having faced many hardships and countless battles just to be with each other (with Reyna knowing too well about Percy's struggle and near-impossible quest just to get that damn Roman eagle standardd).

Reyna suddenly gets an image from four years ago, when she was still working for Circe's. In the Sea of Monsters. In that mad sorceress's island. She remembers a tall, blonde girl with startlingly grey eyes. She recalled combing that particular girl's hair. And then she recalls a boy with sea green eyes.

Right now that boy is standing before here, after four years. The same boy. But right now he is taller, with more ruffled black hair and a mischievously troublemaker smile she has grown to recognize. The grey streak I saw a few days ago in his strand of hair is gone; it just disappeared. His front teeth are now proportioned equally, even though he did not wear braces-oh, if only Circe _saw_ him _now_!

The same Percy Jackson. And the same girl, four years ago. The same Annabeth Chase. The very same who bravely turned down Circe's offer for a demigod friend. A hero. The two never changed; the same boy who turned into a furry and squeaky guinea pig and the defiant thirteen-year old girl who foolishly went against Circe.

They are now older, more experienced, the light in their eyes showing horrors that not even Reyna, much less anyone, could imagine or fathom, even in demigod standards. But they are still the same. They are still reckless. Still selfless.

But their relationship had strengthened considerably. After years of experiencing the same monsters and horrors, fears and doubts, together…their bond strengthened. Tightened. Their connection turned not into just a close friendship or a mutual attraction for each other. Their bond turned into something else. Love.

Reyna silently thanks the two people standing before her now. If it weren't for the two of them, she and Hylla would never reach their true homes. Maybe…just maybe it was fate that she met them again, the very same people, four years ago.

"Are you sure you're not an Amazon, Annabeth?" Reyna asked the daughter of Athena slyly. The daughter of wisdom's eyes darkened into a _very_ stormy grey, but Reyna's attention diverted focused into another person, all the Romans depending on her and the supposedly dangerous _graeceus_ people momentarily forgotten.

Jason. He was _near_. Oh gods…he _returned_. He was with her. But still…_who_ is that _girl_ by his side? _Who_ is _she_?

As Jason whispered something to the girl's ear and she nodded seriously and slowly smiled, Reyna experiences an anger, a _jealousy_ she wants to be taken out of her chest. But is not only directed at that girl, the one with the pretty eyes and undeniable ability and gift of Circe's charmspeak. The very one who was now standing close to Jason, almost hugging distance. The one who seemed like his _girlfiend_.

Piper McLean.

But Reyna's anger is not only cornered to one _graeceus_ only. It is centered to another pair.

Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase.

Staring at the two of them, a rage bubbles up inside of her, rising furiously with an unexplainable fury. And in that moment, that very same moment, she sees two awkward thirteen-year old teenagers-the same boy and girl she saw four years ago-standing before her, dirty and grimy and stinky, almost as tired and weary and forlorn looking as the two heroes she has come to know as Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. These two teenagers are gangly and looked older than they should, as if they experienced more than what an eighty-year old war veteran has.

But at that same moment, as those two images of a thirteen-year old boy and girl flashed before her eyes, those two kids nearly as identical as the two heroes she saw a while ago, she realized something.

If only she met Jason five years ago, when she was still twelve and not working as a handmaiden in Circe's abode.

If only she and Jason experienced the same hardships as Percy and Annabeth had (of course, she had her fair share of adventures with Jason, but still).

Reyna knew where Jason's scars were, and where they healed and some remained. But now, looking at Jason with that Aphrodite girl with charmspeak powers, it was like _all_ those memories-he'd forgotten but started to remember-were useless.

If only Jason was loyal to _her_ as much as Percy was to Annabeth-wait. No. That wasn't it. It was…

…_if only Jason loved her._

But what can she do? It seemed like the Fates like playing cruel tricks on her. Maybe if only Juno let Jason have snippets of memories of her before he woke up in that bus with that curly-haired boy and _girlfriend_; just like what she did to Percy with his tiny memories of Annabeth somewhat guiding him and informing about his main goal: to reunite and see her again.

But she herself doubted it. She knew instinctively that even though Percy lost all his memories of Annabeth, he would _still_ reject Reyna. Not because for some weird reason he knew he was supposed to have a girlfriend named Annabeth to return to, but because of…of something that the daughter of Bellona didn't know. Something that she, along with Annabeth, couldn't explain. Something that very few could explain. Reyna sighed; this was Venus's domain, not hers. She was all battle and strategy and leadership.

It was an outward force that not even the official architect of Olympus would recognize-or even care to. Something unexplainable. Something that Reyna hoped-and _feared_-to know.

Something that would explain everything about her and Jason, and why he ended up loving another girl named Piper.

About simply why they weren't meant to be. Why Venus or Aphrodite or any of the Fates intended it to happen. Of course, in this world full of crazy Greek monsters and oblivious mortals, a break-up or split up was barely anything special or considered a huge problem. But not in Percy and Annabeth's case, of course...

Reyna sighed again, but this time, not so wistful.

_If only._

_Fin._


End file.
